GORAN SONNEVI ~







from Mozart's Third Brain



LXIX


At night once more the moon's quiet, mystical light

The moon is in the trees in the forest, no wind at all xxxNo one sees it

but me, from inside the sleeping house

Now a light breeze moves stiff leaves in the heat

What does human light have to do with me? Have I

turned away, esoteric; though this was never my choice

I don't know I cannot abjure inner sovereignty

Which is also external xxxI taste blood

in my mouth, on my lips xxWho am I sacrificing?

For whom shall I become an offering? Perhaps no one xxxNot even for that

would I be of any use xxxBut I shall touch you with life . . .

Native of Lund, Sweden (b. 1939) Goran Sonnevi is translated here by Rika Lesser.

The above poem is from Mozart's Third Brain (Yale).

photo: norden.org

OLD SCHOOL ~

KOKO TAYLOR

The daughter of a sharecropper born (1928) Cora Walton in Shelby county Tennessee, Koko Taylor may be one of the very last of the hard blues singers/interpreters, and here we have her singing Lefty Dizz's "Bad Avenue" in true Muddy Waters style.

When people say they like their blues the dirtier the better — well, here you go.
Keep in mind the singer's almost 80 years old.

After recording with Charley and Chess in her early years, Taylor moved exclusively into
the good hands at Alligator Records until her unfortunate passing in 2009.